This disclosure relates to an image carrier unit cleaning a residual toner remaining on an image carrier, and an image forming apparatus including such an image carrier unit.
Typically, in an image forming apparatus adopting an electrophotographic process, an electrostatic latent image is formed on an image carrier based on image information, this electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device to form a toner image on the image carrier, and then the toner image is transferred onto a recording medium.
In such an image forming apparatus, when the toner image on the image carrier formed of, for example, a photoconductive drum has been transferred onto the recording medium, a toner consequently remains on the image carrier, and this residual toner needs to be removed from the image carrier. Thus, for example, a cleaning device is arranged oppositely to the image carrier, and this cleaning device is used to remove and collect the residual toner.
A cleaning device as described above has a cleaning roller such as a fur brush roller and a conveyance member. The fur brush roller is driven into rotation in a manner such as to slide on and rub the image carrier to remove the residual toner on the image carrier. The conveyance member conveys the residual toner, which has been removed by the fur brush roller, to a toner waste port along a conveyance path.